The Food and Board (FAB) scheme, run within a pilot area of 8,000 homes since August 2005, collected food waste along with cardboard and green waste in orange-lidded wheeled bins.
 Newport's “FAB” food and board recycling pilot will now switch to a cardboard and green waste only collection pilot |
But after householders included items like paint cans, car batteries and solvents in their orange bins, in-vessel composting company Wormtech refused to take any more of the food waste from Newport.
A series of crisis meetings with Newport and Wormtech's other local authority partner, Monmouthshire county council, has failed to resurrect the FAB scheme.
Cancelled
Newport will now stop collecting food waste from the orange bins from May 22, and a three-fold expansion of the scheme – originally planned for last month – was cancelled. The council has been forced to landfill some of the collected material.
Councillors have expressed disappointment at the cancellation of the scheme, pointing out that Newport had doubled its collection staff on the pilot scheme, and did achieve a level of contamination that was acceptable to Wormtech. In doing so, 200 warning letters were issued to residents.
Nevertheless, Wormtech will not accept food waste from Newport's scheme.
Cllr Ray Truman, Newport's cabinet member for community safety and sustainability, said: “At a time when we've worked with residents to cut down contamination and were set to expand the pilot scheme to cover all orange bin holders, we're disappointed that Wormtech pulled out of the pilot scheme.”
”In Monmouthshire they collect it in biodegradable bags in which the contents are much more visible. It is much easier to hide things in wheeled bins “
– Jackie Powell, Wormtech Ltd
Wormtech
But Wormtech chief executive Graham Owen told letsrecycle.com yesterday that his company was unsatisfied that the council would be able to maintain the acceptable level of cleanliness – particularly with the intention of expanding the scheme.
Mr Owen said: “We accept they have done a good job making it a lot better by doubling the crew – but can you sustain that when you triple the amount of waste collected? If it occurs again, what will happen? They say they would look at it on a case by case basis – that's not a good enough answer.”
Mr Owen said the waste already collected from Newport is having to be put through the system a second time on the orders of Defra and the Environment Agency – as a 10% proportion of inputs, diluted with material collected in Monmouthshire.
Loss
He said this had already put back by three months the company's work in the last stages of achieving full accreditation under animal by-products regulations. It also saw the company hit with a loss of more than 150,000 by processing material a second time.
Wormtech believes the problems with Newport's FAB scheme have come because unlike Monmouthshire's collection scheme, it was being run in inner city areas, with collection containers that made it difficult to detect contamination until it was too late.
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Jackie Powell, the company's managing director, explained: “In Monmouthshire they collect it in kitchen caddies and then it goes into biodegradable bags in which the contents are much more visible. It is much easier to hide things in wheeled bins.”
Cardboard
Newport city council is still collecting green waste and cardboard from the orange wheeled bins within the pilot area, which has since swelled to 10,000 households.
Cllr Truman told householders: “All we ask is that residents ensure their orange bin does not contain the wrong waste, as this can have dire consequences for everyone.”
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